Yesterday was World Pasta Day and today is Friday so it’s time for another football player’s recipe for the weekend and catch up on my food holidays that I missed this week. Spaghetti sauce recipes are pretty much all the basics as we know them, but his meatballs had one ingredient I had never thought of hence I choose this recipe for today’s football pick. It doesn’t hurt that he plays for my all time favorite team, the New York Jets. I became a fan of theirs when I lived in N.Y. way back when Joe Willie played and the team’s training camp was just a few miles south of where I lived. My girlfriend’s father had season tickets for their games and I even got to go see them up close and in person both at the training camp and at the stadium!

Nick Mangold is one of the highest paid centers in the NFL. He makes his sauce a lot like I do, as I had an Italian lady tell me to cook the meatballs directly in the sauce. It keeps them much more moist and tender than when baking them off in a skillet or the oven…………….enjoy!